sales outcomes

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Can you salvage a deal that’s on track for a loss? And if you can, what does it take to recover it? For this industry report, Changing Your Sales Outcomes, we analyzed buyer responses from nearly 1,000 highly competitive B2B sales opportunities collected over an 11-month period. Our study uncovered that over one-third of lost deals could have been won. If you’re working on a sale that seems like it might miss, stick to it: your buyers are probably willing to give you a chance to recover the sale—and a chunk of revenue with it.

The impact of recovering one in three lost deals is significant. The missed opportunities in our study represent over $1.5 billion in lost revenue that sellers could have won had they navigated the sale differently. For the average software vendor in our study, a 33% increase in revenue would have added an estimated $15 million annually to their bottom line. Even recovering a fraction of this would have been significant.

Here’s one example: While sales teams often say price lost the deal, buyers had different ideas. Their advice of what to do differently didn’t place price first or even second in line. In fact, nearly two-thirds of lost deals didn’t have a price-related weakness.

Instead, buyers placed improvements to the sales process at the top of the list, saying it was the leading influencer a vendor could have modified to win.

While it can be discouraging for sellers to hear their sales efforts didn’t hit the mark, this is good news for you. Sales activities are easily correctable, and they’re certainly easier to modify on the fly compared to your product’s feature set or pricing structure.

When it comes to optimizing the sales process, the number one issue buyers raised was a disconnect between what they were seeking and what the losing vendor offered. Buyers said losing vendors did not understand (or respond to) their business needs adequately, especially compared to the winner.

The theme of understanding needs reoccurred throughout our findings as buyers also associated it with a vendor’s product and price. For example, buyers described how winning vendors understood their needs and then tailored their proposed solution around those specifics. Tactics like this helped winners close the deal while pushing out competitors.

Want to see the complete list of things you can do differently to win 33% more deals this year? Read our full report or download the graphic summary.